Detective Conan
is a Japanese detective series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama that has been serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994. Since its publication, Detective Conan has spawned a substantial media franchise. The series has been adapted in a ongoing anime series including several original video anime, video games, movies, TV specials and TV drama series. The manga was awarded in 2001, the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category. The manga series only sold more than 120 million copies in Japan. Case Closed The series got licensed by Funimation in North America since 2003 and named it "Case Closed" due to the "Conan the Barbarian" series. The characters of the series got Americanized which Shinichi Kudō becames "Jimmy Kudo" and Ran Mōri became "Rachel Moore" and some others. Fans believed due to the name changing of the title and characters, the series didn't became popular because it was probably not true to the series, plus the names doesn't fit for the character. Creation and Concept Detective Conan was stuck in Gosho Aoyama's head around the time of planning to create a new series, but his editor though that he should name it "Detective Doyle" instead because due that the popular anime series "Future Boy Conan" that aired from April 4, 1978 until October 31, 1978. Somehow, Gosho managed to convince his editor that he want to name the series Detective Conan and due his inspiration of a mystery novel series of a Tortoiseshell cat Sherlock Holmes which he want to shrink the main character into a child. Gosho also believed that his series would overtake the Future Boy series. The series has been based on various novels, which some names of the characters comes from famous detectives or mystery writer. His main two source of inspiration are "Sherlock Holmes" from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and "Arsène Lupin" from Maurice Leblanc. He also stated that the samurai movies from the legendary movie director Akira Kurosawa has inspired the series. Aoyama hinted he had the ending planned out but he does not intend to end the series yet. Settings The series has been set in a large town located in Tokyo, Japan named "Beika City" named after Sherlock Holmes flat "Baker Street". The spots in the town are named after famous detectives created by mystery novelists knowing a café in the series has been based on Dame Agatha Christie's "Hercule Poirot" and such many others. Not evenly that, there are also named based on the places where Sherlock Holmes and his companion John H. Watson. The series can also be almost comparable of Sherlock Holmes battle with Arsène Lupin, which originally the name of Sherlock Holmes has been changed in Herlock Sholmes to prevent copyright claims, because of the battle between Conan and Kaitō Kid. Growth and Popularity Due that the series has been mostly influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, Sherlock Holmes, Detective Conan is known as one of the largest running series in the manga history of Weekly Shōnen Sunday, giving Gosho Aoyama the nickname "Striving star of Shōnen Sunday"Detective Conan File 500 Commemoration. Detective Conan got a lot of fan sites containing information about the series including guessing the boss of the Black Organization and any kind of others. The popularity of the series is extremely large, in Japan the series is popular by both young and older audience. Gosho tough that the series would only be 3 months, but was surprised about the popularity. Detective Conan also made several collaboration with other popular series such as "Kindaichi Case Files" and "Lupin III", creating a game (Kindaichi) and a 2-hour television special (Lupin). In North America, they created the Detective Conan trading card game, representing events, characters and objects in the series itself. These cards are used by players to fulfill certain conditions to solve a case and win the game. Several scanlation and fansub group translated the series and made it available to download on the internet. Viz Media and Funimation are trying to do everything to make an end to such thing on the internet of the series. Detective Conan also made several cameo appearances in other series, such as: "Yakitate!! Japan", "Black Cat", "Inuyasha", "Hayate the Combat Butler", "Proposal Daisakusen", "Sonic X", "Kenichi the Mighties Disciple", "Angelic Layer", and "Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney". Conan has also been used as a character to promote people to follow the law in Japan, due to the popularity of the series. Media Television Anime The manga series has been adapted into a television anime produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment, Directed by Kenji Kodama and Yasuichiro Yamamoto, Conan's cases have been adapted into 25-minute episodes. There are more than 500 episodes aired in Japan since the anime premiered at January 8, 1996 making it the seventeenth longest anime series. Initially, Shogakukan collected and released the episodes on VHS video cassettes between June 1996, and October 2006. Four hundred and twenty-six episodes were released on VHS until Shogakukan abandoned the format and switched over to DVDs, starting from the first episode. For the fifteenth anniversary of the anime series, the series is being made available for video on demand. Detective Conan is later broadcasted in North America on NHK's cable network TV Japan. In 2003, the first 104 episodes of the regular animation series were licensed by Funimation Entertainment for distribution in North America and was retitled Case Closed because of legal considerations. Meitantei Conan has also been released in other languages. Case Closed debuted on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24, 2004; no more than 50 episodes were licensed from Funimation due to low ratings. The Canadian channel YTV picked up the Case Closed series and broadcast 22 episodes between April 7, 2006, and September 2, 2006, before taking it off the air. Funimation made the series available with the launch of the Funimation Channel in November 2005 and was temporary available on Colours TV during its syndication with the Funimation Channel. A separate English adaptation of the series by Animax Asia premiered in the Philippines on January 18, 2006, under the name Detective Conan. Because Animax were unable to obtain further TV broadcast rights, their version comprised 52 episodes. The series continued with reruns until August 7, 2006, when it was removed from the station. Funimation also released DVDs of their dubbed series beginning August 24, 2004. Initially, the releases were done in single DVDs and future episodes were released in seasonal boxes; as of 2009, they have released 130 episodes dubbed in English. The seasonal boxes were later re-released in redesigned boxes entitled Viridian edition. References Category:Detective Conan